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Further Workplace Health and Safety bosses will be grilled at the inquest into the Dreamworld disaster today, after a leading inspector admitted he had "no confidence" in the emergency procedures in place on the Thunder River Rapids ride.

Italy ship confusion like Titanic: Aussie

An Australian has spoken of the confusion surrounding his evacuation from a stricken cruise ship which ran aground off the Italian coast.

Robert Elcombe, 50, and his wife Tracy were among more than 4000 people on board the Costa Concordia which hit a reef on Friday night (local time) off the Italian west coast, tearing a huge gash in the hull.

Mr Elcombe, formerly of the UK, but who now lives in Australia, said he and his wife got into a lifeboat after the ship began to list, but were ordered out by staff who said it was "only a generator problem" that could be fixed.

"But as we got back inside the ship it tilted so steeply that I had to grab hold of people to save them as they flew down the corridor," he told British newspaper The Mail on Sunday.

Three people - two French passengers and one Peruvian crew member - are confirmed dead after the vessel tilted into the sea near the small island of Giglio.

The 3200 passengers on board the ship, included 23 Australians, whose safety has been confirmed by consular officials.

Many survivors have spoken of the confusion and fear as the ship began to sink, with passengers jumping from the deck to swim to safety and others pushing their way on board life boats and fighting over life jackets.

"The crew couldn't unhook the life boats," Giuseppe D'Avino told The Observer newspaper on Sunday.

"There was a lot of panic. There were people screaming. There were children bawling. And even some fisticuffs among the passengers."

Monique Maurek from the Netherlands said at no time during the cruise were instructions given about how to evacuate the ship if necessary.

"There was no evacuation drill at any point after we set sail," she told The Sunday Telegraph.

"Nobody had any idea where the lifeboats were or where the life jackets were kept, so when it came to having to evacuate the ship it was chaos."

Italian authorities are investigating the circumstances of the crash and have spoken with the ship's captain.